GDI offers its members power and ownership with their .WS domain. Many people could benefit from a domain, but are intimidated by the thought of owning their own domain, or don’t know how to get started. As a GDI affiliate, it is your job to share how important a personalized domain is and how easy it is to own one with GDI.

You know how easy it is to get started with a .WS, so share your story with people as a way to grow your team. If these people still aren’t convinced they need a domain, share with them the benefits of a domain and all the ways they can be used. Here are nine uses for a website or a personalized domain. Share these will people who are unsure if they need a domain and see just how many people could benefit.

1. Sports Team

If you coach a team or take part in a league, a website is a great way to share schedules, the team record, and any practice news. For just $10 per month, a website is a great way to keep a team connected.

2. Events (Wedding/ Baby)

Lots of people create websites for big events like weddings, reunions, and baby showers. If you know anyone planning these big events, they could benefit from their own domain name to share event info, connect people, and help with planning. Think of .WS as “Wedding Site” for this use.

3. Blog

With GDI’s WordPress plugin, having a blog at a domain that you own has never been easier. People who own their .WS can get the benefit of the WordPress platform with the autonomy of their own domain.

4. Photos

GDI offers an easy to use gallery plugin to share photos. Anyone with friends or family far away knows the benefits of a website to share photos and memories. With a .WS you can share your photos at a domain you own and not worry about privacy or ownership issues that come through websites like Facebook.

5. Recipe

Lots of people turn to the internet instead of a cookbook these days when it’s time to plan dinner. Using a website to share your recipes and create an easy to access library for yourself is a great use of your own domain.

6. Message Boards

GDI offers an easy to use forums plugin. This lets you start a conversation around anything you want and invite others to join. This could be about your favorite sport, your town, a personal interest–anything!

7. Business

What do most people do when they want to learn more about a business? Go online and search for that business’s website. If you have a business, but don’t have a website, you are missing these people. Your business website can be a simple single page website listing hours, location, and contact info. Having this website shows you take your business seriously and keeps you from missing potential customers.

8. Restaurant Menu Page

Just like a simple business page, a menu page offers your potential customers the information they need with minimal effort from you. People often look for restaurant menus online and if they can’t find one for a restaurant, they may instead take their business to one that does offer it. If you know anyone who owns their own restaurant, no matter how small, it is essential they have a website with their menu page.

9. Resume/ CV

Having a website with your resume or CV gives employers a chance to find you before they promote a job opening or consider hiring someone. Use your .WS to host your resume, CV, or any portfolio you’ve created. It shows employers you’re website-savvy and allows people to connect you with opportunities even if you might not be actively looking.

We talk often about content marketing on this blog. As a quick refresher, content marketing is the practice of using content (blogs, video, lists) to market your business and get others interested. As there are many different content options, its easy to get overwhelmed with what to create for your website to attract and audience and build income. Below we break down different types of content and who this content is likely to attract. This will prove to be a handy guide when you’re at a loss for what to share on your website next.

Type: Case Study

A case study is an in depth look at a certain topic. One example of this would be your company’s success over a few months of trying a new approach to marketing or the results of a mailing campaign a pizza company did. This is a way to examine what creates (or doesn’t create) success with certain tactics while giving others ideas to do the same.

Potential Audience: People who are interested in bettering their own business and have some experience. Case studies are not usually for beginners as they are more in depth.

Type: Personal Update

A personal update is just what it sounds like–you checking in with your audience/ team. This can be you talking about recent successes, new business ideas or what you’ve got planned for the next few months. This lets your audience see the human side of you while getting ideas for what to do next.

Potential Audience: Anyone. Personal updates have a low barrier to entry, they should be written in a conversational tone and give visitors a peek into the inner workings of your business and some of your ideas.

Type: Industry News

This is sharing news relevant to your industry. This could be sharing affiliate marketing news and trends or news related to your business category. This is easy content to create and it can be a series of links or selected quotes from the news (with links to the original news site) with your comments.

Potential Audience: Other people in your same industry. This kind of content will appeal to people who already have an understanding of your business.

Type: Advice

This content isn’t too different from the personal update. This is a chance to respond to questions you have received in a larger format and offer your unique experience and expertise.

Potential Audience: Your current downline and team members. Often this advice is specific to people working in affiliate marketing or your business. Affiliates and those in the same business category will benefit most from this specific advice.

Type: How-To

This content can range from the simple, “How to sign up with GDI” to the more advanced “How to add a widget to your website.” This content can be shared in text or video.

Potential Audience: You stand to gain a broad audience with how-to content. You can attract people with a range of skills and interests. Use this content to help build your downline and also create an educated team.

Ready to Learn More About Affiliate Marketing with GDI?

As a GDI affiliate, you are a member of the affiliate marketing world. This means that marketing is often the key to your success as an affiliate. However, marketing, much like sales and advertising can get a bad rap for being pushy or annoying. While marketing can be seen as unfriendly sometimes, the work that goes into marketing is anything but. As you build relationships, that’s marketing. When you share news with others interested in GDI, that’s marketing. When you teach others about GDI’s tools and plugins, that’s marketing. Marketing doesn’t have to be overwhelming to you or to others. Read our list of marketing myths and get comfortable with earning income in the world of marketing!

Expensive

Many people think the only way to market is to pay for ads or to sign up for expensive email services. While those methods can be productive, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to be a successful marketer. Sites like Facebook and Twitter allow you to broadcast your marketing messages to many people at once for free, whether you’re promoting GDI or your own business. Creating videos and emails cost nothing more than your time. This is all marketing and it’s all free.

Time Consuming

Marketing does not have to be time consuming. Lots of marketing of GDI can actually be passive–meaning you don’t have to constantly work at it to see results. This kind of passive marketing can be in the form of helpful videos or informative blog posts. This content will live on your .WS website and can attract visitors without you spending hours promoting the content. Simply use the right keywords to drive traffic and link to your content on social media sites and visitors will see your videos and website without you doing extra work.

Confusing

As you can see from the examples above, marketing doesn’t have to be confusing. You don’t need to worry about audience reach and retention or email timing or anything professional marketing firms worry about. You just need to create great content that is valuable to others. Add the right keywords and share in many places and you’re already doing powerful content marketing.

Need to Pay for Ad Space

Before social networks and easy to build websites, this was true. The only way to get your content in front of people was to pay for it. Now that’s not true. Find out where people are spending most of their time online. Is it Facebook? YouTube? Tumblr? Take advantage of these free networks and promote your content on them. You’re essentially sharing an “ad” for your business, but your visitors actually get something out of the “ad” (like learning how to use a plugin) and you didn’t have to pay for people to see it.

Need a Whole Team

GDI offers many opportunities to work with a team and succeed with others. However, you only need one person to start marketing. Identify your strengths, like web design or video editing, for example, and start creating content that uses those strengths. The information you share about web design or the videos you create are both content marketing and can be done by just one person.

Need to be Everywhere

Marketing is all about being where your intended audience is. So before you decide how you are going to market, find out where potential prospects and customers are. Are these people in your town or business community? Consider flyers or attending local meetings. Are these people online? Use social networking and websites to connect with them. There is no need to be any place that your intended audience isn’t.

Anyone Can Do It

This is a partial myth. Many people will attempt affiliate marketing, but some will fail. Often this is the result of not putting enough time into marketing or cutting corners. If you produce quality content to market with and work on building relationships success is sure to follow.